The hydra attacked again.
Faster.
More violent.
One head crashed into Stefan and sent him flying across the broken ground.
His body slammed hard.
But again—
No pain.
No damage.
He tried to stand.
Barely able to move.
Stefan: "…I can't win…"
The hydra roared.
All its heads moved at once.
Closing in.
No escape.
No strength left.
Then—
Something changed.
Stefan moved.
Slow.
Weak.
But different.
As one of the heads lunged toward him—
He raised his hand.
And threw a punch.
A weak punch.
No power.
No technique.
Just instinct.
The punch landed.
For a moment—
Nothing happened.
Then—
The hydra stopped.
All its heads froze.
The entire body trembled.
And then—
It collapsed.
Dead.
Silence.
Complete silence.
Stefan stood there.
Breathing slowly.
Confused.
Stefan: "…What…"
Then—
Everything changed.
The world around him disappeared.
Darkness.
Endless.
Then—
Images appeared.
Memories.
His memories.
From childhood.
From the smallest moments.
Running as a kid.
Laughing.
Crying.
Every single moment.
Not one by one—
All at once.
Everything.
Every memory.
Every second of his life.
At the same time.
Stefan's eyes widened.
Stefan: "…What is this…"
Time—
Didn't exist.
There was no past.
No present.
No future.
Everything was happening together.
All at once.
He wasn't watching them like memories.
He was inside them.
Feeling them.
Living them.
All at the same time.
Infinite.
Endless.
It felt like forever.
Like time had stopped existing.
Like it never existed.
Stefan felt something strange.
Like he wasn't even in his body anymore.
Like he was just—
Awareness.
Watching everything.
From nowhere.
From nothing.
He saw every decision.
Every moment.
Every path.
All at once.
No sequence.
No order.
Just existence.
Pure existence.
His voice felt distant.
Almost not his own.
Stefan: "…Time… doesn't exist here…"
And the more he stayed—
The more it felt like he had always been there.
Like this state was real.
And the world outside—
Was not.
Infinite moments passed.
Or maybe none.
There was no way to tell.
Because here—
There was no time.
Only everything.
At once.